Within the context of conducting an access transaction (e.g., a transaction for accessing a building, a transaction for accessing data inside of a computer, a payment transaction) with a portable device (e.g., a contact chip card, an NFC enabled phone, a contactless credit card) and an access terminal (e.g., a chip terminal, a contactless terminal) at a resource provider (e.g., a secured building, a merchant), multiple communication protocols for conducting the transaction may exist. Communication protocols may be defined by various characteristics. Some protocols may be stateless while others may be stateful. Some protocols may specify a particular ordered sequence of commands or communications that are to be exchanged between a portable device and an access terminal in order to conduct the transaction.
Because of such characteristics, communication protocols may not be compatible with one another. In particular, a portable device that is configured to use one communication protocol may be unable to perform a transaction with an access terminal that is configured to use a different communication protocol. In an example where a customer intends to use a credit card to purchase an item at a checkout line of a store, the credit card may turn out to be unusable at the store if the credit card relies on a stateful communication protocol while the access terminal is configured to communicate in a stateless fashion. As a result, either the customer is forced to rely on a different method of payment (e.g., cash, check, or another type of credit card) or the store is forced to purchase and maintain another type of access terminal
Embodiments of the present invention address these problems and other problems individually and collectively.